Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Ribbet.com and Other Fun Photo Toys/Apps

In my "down time," ok, even I have to stop and laugh at that.....ok I have found some very cool ways to amp up my pictures and promote ideas and causes near and dear to my heart, namely my family and farming.

I actually snuck away for a day with my bloggy pals a couple weeks ago right before harvest started, and Jent, from From My Front Porch, told be about Ribbet.com I wanted to take some of my farm pictures and turn them into poster prints or photo posters to promote farming, but I didn't know how to get the text on the picture. This site has a great and easy way to "pop" your pics and add text. When I went there, the upgrade was offered for free! I hope you can hop on over there and take advantage of the same deal. Here are a few of my fun creations:

I have been posting them and tweeting them under the hashtag #Farmsmatter to help promote the farmer and what we do. This past week was National Farm Safety Week, and we just started in the field. It's great to be able to promote what you love and what you do!

Another fun app I have added to my Andriod Motorola Atrix is Camera360. Bear has a BLAST with this app, and I think she is truly learning about photography the fun way. Here are some of here creations (p.s. She is under strict orders NOT to photo Mommy's bad side, or pretty much any other side from a distorted perspective. Reality is scary enough!)

I truly think she is learning a lot about color, symmetry, focal points, and a bazillion other aspects of photography just by playing with this particular app!

Then, of course I have played with it a bit too, using different filters. Sometimes the program will suggest to me which filter to start with, and then I can tweak it from there.

Another great feature for this camera and most of the others you can load to your phone is that once you tweak your picture, you can upload it just about anywhere to anyone in any format. I can text them or post them on Facebook or Instagram, or I can Tweet them on Twitter. VERY COOL!

I guess the biggest take away is that while my beloved Nikon has not been abandoned, I still have some great options if I am without it and a photo opportunity presents itself. That's kind of nice to know because as much as I love my Nikon, it is a bit of a load to pack around on spur of the moment days.

Here is your challenge. Let the inner shutterbug inside you be free, and start playing with your phone camera! Download Instagram and/or Camera360, and start having fun!

Is there an app I am missing? What is your favorite camera phone or editing app? Please feel free to share!